30,000 PS3s Folding@home

Application to investigate the causes of various diseases launches with good sign-up rates; no cures yet.

More than 30,000 PlayStation 3 owners have signed up for Stanford University's Folding@home project since its launch in firmware update 1.60 on March 23.

The Folding@home endeavour is similar to the University of California-Berkeley's SETI@home project, which uses the processing power of idle PCs to search the stars for extraterrestrial life. Folding@home taps into spare PC processing power, and also that of PS3s, to study the causes of diseases including Alzheimer's, cancer, and cystic fibrosis.

On March 23, the PS3 launched in a number of new regions, including across Europe, Australasia, and the Middle East, along with firmware 1.60, which added the option of participating in Folding@home.

Folding@home is currently also being actively processed by 160,000 Windows machines, 13,000 Macs, 25,000 Linux machines, and 800 GPU chips.

254 Comments

  • samdonni

    Posted Apr 14, 2007 1:07 pm PT

    Well, i have this on my PS3, and if its working i am very happy indeed!

    But im not sure exactly how it works. Anyone know how it does?

  • gatsbythepig

    Posted Apr 6, 2007 6:30 pm PT

    this is amazing

  • greystone227

    Posted Mar 30, 2007 10:39 pm PT

    I have this software running on my PC. I set it to only run during my screen saver. I haven't noticed any drop in performance since I started running it about 2 weeks ago. The way I look at it is that I could be helping a good cause, but even if it doesn't really work and I'm wasting my time, it only runs during my screen saver, so it's not really affecting me.

  • ewilX

    Posted Mar 29, 2007 6:19 am PT

    Oh come on people, if they could use these computers, macs, PS3's etc. to find a cure for cancer etc. some big company like HP, Dell, Toshiba, or maybe all of them together, would be able to develop the cures years ago. I have no belief in this project what so ever. Though it would be amazingly fantastic if they actually managed to get something out of this of course.

  • Schumock

    Posted Mar 28, 2007 9:14 am PT

    Some people are so selfish, this is a great idea. If it cures anything whether it be HIV, AIDS, Cancer, it is still a great feeling to know you helped cure it. Also, it takes 200W which isn't that much to run the program.

  • darkdragonmage9

    Posted Mar 28, 2007 6:48 am PT

    whats worse cancer or aids lets see alot of people with cancer will survive everbody with aids will die so wich is worse living through something or a 100% chance of death

  • ChowLee_88

    Posted Mar 28, 2007 12:34 am PT

    DiskGuru101 do you mean Bullsh** 3 when you say BS3. And its just a console miles its not like he's insulting your mother.

  • MilesTormani

    Posted Mar 27, 2007 8:58 pm PT

    Okay, first thing is to tell DiscGuru101 to just shut up with his ranting about the "BS3" before he gets MORE people, even people who admittedly dislike Sony's plans (like myself), to find where he lives and beat him with a hardcover dictionary.

    *ahem*

    Not to say research to find a cure for cancer or AIDS is bad, but...

    I personally have to say that this sounds like the kind of marketing ploy that's the basis for scams. It's trying to make you "throw money" at a problem to get it to go away. Does "Pay 1 dollar and you'll feed 20 kids for months" sound familiar at all?

    In any case, I find that the @home projects do give a hit in both your processing and your electric bill. It might be because my computer's a piece of crap, but still. Like some other people (that aren't DiscGuru101) have said, just give what you're doing a little thought before following through. It might turn out to simply be free publicity/bandwidth for someone.

    However, I personally want to find an instant cure for procrastination that does not involve weening me from videogames.

  • mikethemonkey

    Posted Mar 27, 2007 8:54 pm PT

    Processing power of idle PCs won't find a cure for ANYTHING...Give me a break! This is nothing but a science project masked as a cure that will save the world! People, get a clue!

  • ChowLee_88

    Posted Mar 27, 2007 7:34 pm PT

    amaranth finding a cure for cancer or AIDS is completely different to feeding starving kids. starving kids don't need pills unless its to fight more treatable diseases and they don't pay for them. Cancer is a business why else does it seem every time someone claims to have a cure the media barely covers the story and the governments in some countries even go as far to make it illegal to claim you have any type of unorthodox cure (surgery being included). And Adam2987 sad as it is this is most likely also a complete waste of money. Also amaranth_aeon did you hear about what happened to the aid money sent to Rawanda i'm not saying ppl should donate money to charity just don't be so sure you know where its going.

  • Bunqie_Jump

    Posted Mar 27, 2007 7:30 pm PT

    Riverwolf007, you have no idea what your talking about. sure having ps3's on burns more energy but who is to say that your power doesn't come from nuclear solar wind or hydro? also turning on a car does solves no problem. oh and should we shut down all the equipment that treats cancer because it burns fuel?

  • adam2987

    Posted Mar 27, 2007 7:09 pm PT

    My grandma died of Alzheimer's disease and my grandad died of cancer so I wanna help as much as possible. Shut up about fossil fuels! Your missing the entire point.

  • Diegocr

    Posted Mar 27, 2007 5:20 pm PT

    Wow, good that they're helping, I still don´t do it because of what I saw that it makes us have less computing power.

  • dusank99

    Posted Mar 27, 2007 4:58 pm PT

    thats good? i guess?

  • makaid

    Posted Mar 27, 2007 4:17 pm PT

    ---So now we are going to burn more fossil fuels to power the PS3's that would normally be turned off and pump more crap into the air so more people get cancer in order to cure cancer? Brilliant! Next time maybe egg heads can show a way to leave your car running at idle in your garage overnight to fix global warming.------------

    Hey! Shared computing is not a new idea. It has been around for years! It does work.

    Also what says my PS3 doesn't run on wind or solar power. XD

  • Daytona_178

    Posted Mar 27, 2007 4:01 pm PT

    Thats good news!

  • peeweeshift

    Posted Mar 27, 2007 2:34 pm PT

    Woah that is the most unsual thing i've evere heard

  • Riverwolf007

    Posted Mar 27, 2007 1:51 pm PT

    So now we are going to burn more fossil fuels to power the PS3's that would normally be turned off and pump more crap into the air so more people get cancer in order to cure cancer? Brilliant! Next time maybe egg heads can show a way to leave your car running at idle in your garage overnight to fix global warming.

  • s3lFc0nTr0l

    Posted Mar 27, 2007 1:44 pm PT

    not any good games to play, might as well help people, i really dont see as how this will have a significant impact tho

  • ZeshiO

    Posted Mar 27, 2007 12:27 pm PT

    @ToyotaF1

    you should actually read the stats on the website. It says below, that Active CPU's for PC's are considered being active the last 50 days. Active PS3's are considered last 2 days. Therefore, there are probably actually less PC's running right now. So that stat doesn't mean crap. So nice try being cute and all that.

  • ToyotaF1

    Posted Mar 27, 2007 12:13 pm PT

    some statistics from folding @ home website:

    OS: Windows, Active CPUs 164,813, TFLOPS 157
    Playstaion 3, Active CPUs 28,466, TFLOPS 373

  • R-Force

    Posted Mar 27, 2007 11:51 am PT

    'a virus, or soemthing, that can actuall kill the HIV virus. Its being tested know, which is good . ' -Tom1243

    That's brilliant!

  • Tom1243

    Posted Mar 27, 2007 11:39 am PT

    I was watching a programme last night, and apprently there is a virus, or soemthing, that can actuall kill the HIV virus. Its being tested know, which is good .

  • xatman911

    Posted Mar 27, 2007 10:45 am PT

    Now its a Blu-ray player which can play games and do research. Doing research is the best with especially with so much processing power.

  • princeofgames90

    Posted Mar 27, 2007 9:21 am PT

    but as it seems all types of cpu's help

  • amaranth_aeon

    Posted Mar 27, 2007 6:43 am PT

    I hear people say "Sony didn't do this out of kindness, but to manipulate people, make money yadda-yadda-yadda". SO FRICKIN' WHAT?!

    Here's a little life story... I spent a few months working in an orphanage in Vietnam. It was the only privately-owned orphanage in the whole country -- the only one where children had enough food and clothes, superior education that allowed them to find jobs easily, and so on. The founder of the orphanage said his biggest contributor was a guy from a far-right French political party (pretty much the embodiment of evil). A journalist had criticized him for accepting money from that donor, who obviously was just trying to make himself look good. His only answer was: well, that man's yearly donation is sufficient to feed 54 children all year round.

    What should he have done? Refused the money because the donor's motivations were hypocritical? Rubbish. Typical BS from people who've never done anything to help anyone in their lives, yet have the strictest standards as to who is 'worthy", who "deserves" to help/be helped and how. It pisses me off something fierce!

    Instead of berating the PS3 for something so ludicrous, why don't you guys go protest against pharmaceutical companies who forbid African countries to produce AIDS generics that Africans could afford? I mean, seriously, can't you find more important things to be all righteous about?

  • iBlackboi

    Posted Mar 27, 2007 6:23 am PT

    First off this is stupid for people to sit here and debate which is worse. And to sterotype that people who catch AIDS are in a low position shows much stupidity on your behalf, I losing a loved one to AIDS now that was in a good position in life, and it really came out the blue to us, This is a very serious thing thats out there and it no way to know unless you take a test to find out otherwise you could go to the doctor regulary and still wont know so please get tested and educate yourself on these things because this is a serious matter that's killing us softly.

  • faizali86

    Posted Mar 27, 2007 4:24 am PT

    i wonder how they do this. ps3 cures

  • apu99992

    Posted Mar 27, 2007 4:10 am PT

    BTW, they found a cure 4 HIV, so cancer is a little more important.

    It's not a cure really, but they found out that there's a certain part of your cells that stops them from fighting HIV and allows HIV to clone itself. Once they figure how to tranquilize that part of the body, it can fight HIV and defeat AIDS!

    OH, and kudos 2 sony 4 nice idea. I myself have singed up 4 folding at home.

  • cjcr_alexandru

    Posted Mar 27, 2007 3:29 am PT

    I didn't know you can use your GPU for this... Cool!

  • Myugenjin

    Posted Mar 27, 2007 3:18 am PT

    Disc guru if this is so then I guess those Apple computers, 160k other PC's, and 800 what ever gpu's are doin the same 2!

  • Myugenjin

    Posted Mar 27, 2007 3:10 am PT

    Snuff I disagree, cancer is a disease that is far more important then aids/hiv! Ya see in the long run it's not ur parents (babyboomer), local law enforcment, state reps, ect. that are contracting HIV/AIDS! It's ppl who are either morally "flawed" or simply less fortunates.

    There are controversial statistics in which ppl with aids are dieing out faster in 2nd/3rd world country's then they're reproducing in those 2nd/3rd world country's (the virus) which in time will kill itself off from the mass populace. (due to the lack of care they recieve from family, harsh living conditions, and down right lack of gov't aid by Islamic nations in contrast to what you get here in the U.S. or Europe)

    Cancer on the other hand is infinitely more advanced seeing that it comes from within our own body and is a mutation of the bodys healthy cells via acids/proteans!

    As far as aids is concerned there are a group of europeans who are decendants of ppl who didn't contract the black plague when it was prevelant in their community 500+ years ago. These ppl actually lack a "segment" in which the HIV virus can inplant its code through reverse-transcription. Now scientist are basically trying to figure out what to "plug" into that segment to act as an alpha blocker just as your alergy medicine would eleminating HIV/AIDS (spreading)!

    Ma great uncles an geneticist for CDC and ma godfather created a think tank to help this kinda stuff!

  • DiscGuru101

    Posted Mar 27, 2007 3:10 am PT

    skillzdatkillz0--"Deadly serious man, they are getting $0 from this" ---You are quite wrong my friend. They have all the little people, like you, defending the BS3 for the wrong reasons. This was done as a display of power, to grab "hype" about the cell, which they co-designed. Not a tender spot for humanity.

  • Chrissyc86

    Posted Mar 27, 2007 3:00 am PT

    it can't be bad right? medical research and all that, regardless of whether sony are making money off it (which i doubt very much) i gotta say "nice one" to all those 30,000 people who are folding.

  • ChowLee_88

    Posted Mar 27, 2007 1:56 am PT

    wow skillz can you assume they do care and how do you know they are getting $0 were you there when they thought this up and signed the contracts with whoever they had to

  • SnuffDaddyNZ

    Posted Mar 27, 2007 1:07 am PT

    Aid/HIV is a far bigger priority than cancer, and most likely easier to cure since it's a virus.

  • skillzdatkillz0

    Posted Mar 27, 2007 12:59 am PT

    Wow DiscGuru.. seriously. How can you assume they care nothing when u neither know them personally or even as an acquaintance?
    Deadly serious man, they are getting $0 from this, you are completely clueless...

  • caflash

    Posted Mar 27, 2007 12:53 am PT

    DiscGuru - you realize that the people that eventually come up with a cure for cancer will, in fact, make a lot of money from that... right? So - does that mean we shouldn't support them? Yes, this is good press for sony - but it does further a good cause. I'm sure sony is doing this out of greed, and not altruistically. So? As far as I know, they're not charging Stanford anything to do this, and it can help someone someday - how is this a bad thing?

  • RussianYulia17

    Posted Mar 27, 2007 12:50 am PT

    home looks great can't wait

  • DiscGuru101

    Posted Mar 27, 2007 12:21 am PT

    liquid_sleep--You dont seem to get the point. Sony is using "Cancer" to "make money" off the BS3. Its not done with good intentions, its done out of pure greed. -Since when do they care about life or death?

  • ChowLee_88

    Posted Mar 26, 2007 11:32 pm PT

    Did anyone here know that it is actually illegal to claim that you can cure cancer unless its through radiation treatment if thats not screaming THE GOVERNMENT LOVES TAX money from the business of medicine and health then I don't know what does and If the power company isn't government owned then they are paying taxes. Think about it if you owned sony, microsoft or apple would you do this for a tax break from the government or a donation from a privately owned electricity company? and what about global warming? If smoking causes cancer whats burning more fuel going to do?

  • Cunder

    Posted Mar 26, 2007 11:01 pm PT

    As far as I'm concern about electricity PS3 doesn't consume alot of power compared to The tv's being plug to every outlet. If I remember correctly there about 1 atleast 4 tvs (probably few more then that) in every household. That consume energy everday even without leaving it on. If you wanna talk about waste electricty complain about something that is more realistic.

    As for me I donate my ps3 time and power while I'm at work.

  • ShoeHornOPlenty

    Posted Mar 26, 2007 10:28 pm PT

    Hey cant play games on the thing since most of them are ports or suck so might as well have your 600 dollar paperweight do something useful

  • azizrulez

    Posted Mar 26, 2007 8:53 pm PT

    something to keep the sony fanboys happy about
    but on a more serious note a very noble cause

  • liquid_sleep

    Posted Mar 26, 2007 8:19 pm PT

    Does it matter if Sony uses it for publicity? (Rhetorical question!)

    Ask the researchers at Stanford...I'm 100% positive they'll be happy for any publicity, and data this gets them. (Duh!)

    DiskGuru101: So anyone who sees the value in this is a dim-witted fanboy?

    Troll...

  • Jazizzle

    Posted Mar 26, 2007 8:13 pm PT

    now why can we be more like canada? seriously?

  • explodingcow

    Posted Mar 26, 2007 7:35 pm PT

    Thank god for Canada, we got public health care. So if a cure is found anyone gets the treatment

  • xophaser

    Posted Mar 26, 2007 7:16 pm PT

    That 8 hours of community service I just did. Just giving back to this crazy society.

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